High school boys tennis: Lehikoinen's game translates well for Penn

When Erik Lehikoinen showed up for his first practice with the Penn boys tennis team, head coach Eric Bowers sent him to the JV unit.

The foreign-exchange student from Finland had missed the first two weeks of workouts and Bowers didn't have a clue about Lehikoinen's skill level.

It didn't take JV coach Andrew Pola long to send him back.

"Andrew said, 'You have a new No. 1 player,'" Bowers recalled.

And so it's gone for the Kingsmen with Lehikoinen at the top of their lineup. Penn (17-4) will head to the IHSAA State Finals beginning Friday with a quarterfinal match-up against No. 3 North Central at Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis. Match time is 3 p.m.

"Other than (No. 1) Carmel, North Central has pretty much run through its season," Bowers said. "Carmel is a monster, but I think North Central is a monster as well."

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For Penn to advance, it will need a major effort from Lehikoinen. So far, that hasn't been much of a problem, despite the obvious adjustments.

Lehikoinen came from Jyvaskyla, a city three hours north of Helsinki. He said he was the 10th-ranked under-18 player in his country.

"I was really excited to play high school tennis here," he said. "There are no school teams at all in Finland. I was kind of nervous how the other guys would take me, but they welcomed me immediately."

"The guys knew with Erik, we could be a top-10 team and possibly win a semistate," Bowers said. "Even from the first day when we saw him play, there was that excitement."

It culminated in a semistate victory over Culver Military last week, earning Penn the spot in the state finals -- it's first since 2005. Lehikoinen beat CMA's Wilson Wu in straight sets to improve to 12-0.

Lehikoinen, along with the undefeated (25-0) one doubles duo of Sean Anderson and Brad Walter, have provided the Kingsmen with stability this season.

That's the main thing Lehikoinen wanted.

"I really wasn't expecting anything," he said. "I just wanted to be happy and play. The team is the most important thing to me. The guys have been good to me and I'm happy we've had success."

Most of Lehikoinen's outdoor tennis experience came on clay courts, so the hard courts here in the USA proved to be one adjustment.

Another adjustment has been the language.

"He had never heard of a squeegee," Bowers said with a chuckle. "I also told him he couldn't fist-pump on the court and he asked what a fist-pump was."

Other than that, his game has translated just fine.

"His footwork is incredible," Bowers said. "He sets up a point very well. He knows when to come in (to the net) and when to stay back. He's at a different level than most players."

And, so is North Central.

"We've been playing our best tennis of late," Bowers said, "but North Central is a phenomenal team. We'll have to play better than ever to compete."

If the Kingsmen can, a semifinal berth against the Jasper-Center Grove victor awaits Saturday at 10 a.m. at North Central High School.